Emeralds are the premier gems in the beryl family.
For more than 4,000 years, emeralds have been among the most valuable
of all jewels. In one of the rare cases where lore and fact coincide,
emerald history really does begin in Egypt, where there actually
was a "Cleopatra's Mine." Mining in the desert south of Cairo
near the Aswan Dam began before 2000 B.C. and continued until
about 1200 A.D. Although emeralds were extracted for 2000 years
before Cleopatra was born, her use and love of gems led to her
name being attached to the mine, an association that remains.
Egypt supplied the known world with emeralds throughout the Biblical
period and through the Middle Ages. But most of the stones, as
you see in numerous examples in Fred Ward's book on emeralds,
would barely be classified as gems today. The world had to wait
until Spain conquered the New World and found Indians wearing
great emeralds to see how fine the green gemstones could be.

Fabulous emerald crystals came from what is now
Colombia. It took Spain five decades to overpower the Muzo
Indians who occupied the mining area. Monarchs and the gem-loving
royalty in India, Turkey, and Persia sought the New World treasures
once the gems arrived in Europe. The new emerald owners produced
spectacular artifacts between 1600 and 1900.

Today Colombia, Brazil, and Zambia mine most commercial emeralds.
Several other countries, such as Pakistan and Zimbabwe, mine smaller
amounts. Although Brazil produces more emeralds annually than
any other country, Colombia dominates the trade by setting the
standards for size and color. It is Colombian emeralds against
which all others are judged. Rarer and sometimes more expensive
than a similar-sized diamond, Colombian emeralds have a unique
look, a green lightly touched with blue. Muzo,
the original mine, remains the most important emerald mine in
the world.